About ten years ago when I was going through cancer treatment, I said to myself all the time, "This has changed me. From now on I will be more this and more that and do less of this or that. I will never see the world the same again." It didn't take long after I went into remission that most of my bad habits returned -- even smoking! -- and I realized I am pretty much who I am, cancer or not. Someone said it earlier. There will have to be massive loss of life before any dramatic changes occur in the way society works. There may be incremental changes in how we operate. I've never been one to believe in the "we study history in order not to repeat it." We repeat history all the time (genocide, anyone?). This will not be the last time the world is unprepared for a crisis.
Reading this made me think of a somewhat similar experience ( not cancer ) , around 2004 I had to have major surgery on my left kidney and during the surgery my kidney burst , I was in ICU for two days and have little to no memory of it , I was then in the hospital for 10 days recovery ( was only supposed to be there 3 day total ) and another few weeks recovering at home.
When I first woke up and was speaking to my family after getting out of ICU , I thought my god why did I say I would catch up with this person another time or not go out with friends because I wanted to get a few extra hours of sleep , that I was working at a job that I hated ( management at Bank Of America ). I said I would never go back , I did leave that job and have worked at a non-profit for years but you just kind of get back into the habits you have.
Talking to my mom every night on Facetime I still get angry with myself that right before this happened she asked if I wanted to stop by for dinner and I was just tired from work and said " another time"
I agree with the main points that it's going to be easy for people, and larger society to fall back into old habits. Look at the cleaner air...I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." There will be some small changes...maybe some employers (for employees who have work-at-home as an option) will be forceful in discouraging people from coming to the office when sick...things like that. But things that don't relate directly to what's going on (like travel behaviors, cherishing time with family, less time in the rat-race, etc.) are likely to revert back.
All that said, specific to your situation, people have to look out for themselves...If I allowed her to, my mom would suck the life right out of me. That dinner you missed? Sometimes people have to do that. Eddie gets it (see "Alright")
"I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." "
I've thought about that myself. I think people will definitely up their average daily mileage once this is over but I think driving and travel in general will be reduced from what it was B.C..
I can't imagine big cruise ships will be the thing they once were. Someone smart and with big bucks should take some of those ships and permanently dry dock or land them and turn them into huge hotel/entertainment centers rather than floating germ factories.
I don't see people flying as much as they used to- at least in part because I think most people will be less well off (and the brunt of that will be felt by the poor and people with lower incomes).
If we here in the U.S. were smart (generally we are not) we would seize this opportunity to revive our railway system. We would be fools to not do that.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
About ten years ago when I was going through cancer treatment, I said to myself all the time, "This has changed me. From now on I will be more this and more that and do less of this or that. I will never see the world the same again." It didn't take long after I went into remission that most of my bad habits returned -- even smoking! -- and I realized I am pretty much who I am, cancer or not. Someone said it earlier. There will have to be massive loss of life before any dramatic changes occur in the way society works. There may be incremental changes in how we operate. I've never been one to believe in the "we study history in order not to repeat it." We repeat history all the time (genocide, anyone?). This will not be the last time the world is unprepared for a crisis.
Reading this made me think of a somewhat similar experience ( not cancer ) , around 2004 I had to have major surgery on my left kidney and during the surgery my kidney burst , I was in ICU for two days and have little to no memory of it , I was then in the hospital for 10 days recovery ( was only supposed to be there 3 day total ) and another few weeks recovering at home.
When I first woke up and was speaking to my family after getting out of ICU , I thought my god why did I say I would catch up with this person another time or not go out with friends because I wanted to get a few extra hours of sleep , that I was working at a job that I hated ( management at Bank Of America ). I said I would never go back , I did leave that job and have worked at a non-profit for years but you just kind of get back into the habits you have.
Talking to my mom every night on Facetime I still get angry with myself that right before this happened she asked if I wanted to stop by for dinner and I was just tired from work and said " another time"
I agree with the main points that it's going to be easy for people, and larger society to fall back into old habits. Look at the cleaner air...I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." There will be some small changes...maybe some employers (for employees who have work-at-home as an option) will be forceful in discouraging people from coming to the office when sick...things like that. But things that don't relate directly to what's going on (like travel behaviors, cherishing time with family, less time in the rat-race, etc.) are likely to revert back.
All that said, specific to your situation, people have to look out for themselves...If I allowed her to, my mom would suck the life right out of me. That dinner you missed? Sometimes people have to do that. Eddie gets it (see "Alright")
"I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." "
I've thought about that myself. I think people will definitely up their average daily mileage once this is over but I think driving and travel in general will be reduced from what it was B.C..
I can't imagine big cruise ships will be the thing they once were. Someone smart and with big bucks should take some of those ships and permanently dry dock or land them and turn them into huge hotel/entertainment centers rather than floating germ factories.
I don't see people flying as much as they used to- at least in part because I think most people will be less well off (and the brunt of that will be felt by the poor and people with lower incomes).
If we here in the U.S. were smart (generally we are not) we would seize this opportunity to revive our railway system. We would be fools to not do that.
You know - I always hear about the "floating germ factories". How is this any different than all the people in cities living on top of each other, cramming into subways, etc.
I've been on a number of cruises...sure anytime you are in closer quarters with people risk goes up, but lets not pretend it's some forgone conclusion that when there is no pandemic virus that is attacking everyone that cruises are somehow more dangerous than living on top of your neighbors in NYC, LA, Chicago, London, Rome...and on and on and on.
Also, people share space temporarily in transit, in (shitty) recreation they eat together, sleep together, swim together, and share many more facilities/equipment.
And railways...better for the environment...way worse during a pandemic. So, why would a pandemic have that effect?
The idea is that we're going to back to normal. If so, we're looking at an opportunity to see how good things could be.
And that's really the question...ARE we going to go back to normal? I live in an urban condo within feet of a light rail transit line I've ridden almost every weekday from June 2014 through last month. One-care household and my wife drives for work. Now I have to decide whether I'm going to take that to the office once I get to start going in. Ugh. My long-run hope is that I'll be riding it every day after there's a vaccine. In the interim, I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing.
And man, I hope we do go back to normal. Because it's not feasible to suburbanize all of the people in big cities. And it's not sustainable to make sure each of them drives.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
And railways...better for the environment...way worse during a pandemic. So, why would a pandemic have that effect?
The idea is that we're going to back to normal. If so, we're looking at an opportunity to see how good things could be.
And that's really the question...ARE we going to go back to normal? I live in an urban condo within feet of a light rail transit line I've ridden almost every weekday from June 2014 through last month. One-care household and my wife drives for work. Now I have to decide whether I'm going to take that to the office once I get to start going in. Ugh. My long-run hope is that I'll be riding it every day after there's a vaccine. In the interim, I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing.
And man, I hope we do go back to normal. Because it's not feasible to suburbanize all of the people in big cities. And it's not sustainable to make sure each of them drives.
Agree with your question, 'Are we going to go back to normal?' I think it will be a 'new' normal for a while. From everything I've read, concerts and large events will be postponed until 2021. Many schools are not planning to open until the fall of 2020. Ohioans have been urged to keep wearing masks for possibly up to one year.
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,296
About ten years ago when I was going through cancer treatment, I said to myself all the time, "This has changed me. From now on I will be more this and more that and do less of this or that. I will never see the world the same again." It didn't take long after I went into remission that most of my bad habits returned -- even smoking! -- and I realized I am pretty much who I am, cancer or not. Someone said it earlier. There will have to be massive loss of life before any dramatic changes occur in the way society works. There may be incremental changes in how we operate. I've never been one to believe in the "we study history in order not to repeat it." We repeat history all the time (genocide, anyone?). This will not be the last time the world is unprepared for a crisis.
Reading this made me think of a somewhat similar experience ( not cancer ) , around 2004 I had to have major surgery on my left kidney and during the surgery my kidney burst , I was in ICU for two days and have little to no memory of it , I was then in the hospital for 10 days recovery ( was only supposed to be there 3 day total ) and another few weeks recovering at home.
When I first woke up and was speaking to my family after getting out of ICU , I thought my god why did I say I would catch up with this person another time or not go out with friends because I wanted to get a few extra hours of sleep , that I was working at a job that I hated ( management at Bank Of America ). I said I would never go back , I did leave that job and have worked at a non-profit for years but you just kind of get back into the habits you have.
Talking to my mom every night on Facetime I still get angry with myself that right before this happened she asked if I wanted to stop by for dinner and I was just tired from work and said " another time"
I agree with the main points that it's going to be easy for people, and larger society to fall back into old habits. Look at the cleaner air...I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." There will be some small changes...maybe some employers (for employees who have work-at-home as an option) will be forceful in discouraging people from coming to the office when sick...things like that. But things that don't relate directly to what's going on (like travel behaviors, cherishing time with family, less time in the rat-race, etc.) are likely to revert back.
All that said, specific to your situation, people have to look out for themselves...If I allowed her to, my mom would suck the life right out of me. That dinner you missed? Sometimes people have to do that. Eddie gets it (see "Alright")
"I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." "
I've thought about that myself. I think people will definitely up their average daily mileage once this is over but I think driving and travel in general will be reduced from what it was B.C..
I can't imagine big cruise ships will be the thing they once were. Someone smart and with big bucks should take some of those ships and permanently dry dock or land them and turn them into huge hotel/entertainment centers rather than floating germ factories.
I don't see people flying as much as they used to- at least in part because I think most people will be less well off (and the brunt of that will be felt by the poor and people with lower incomes).
If we here in the U.S. were smart (generally we are not) we would seize this opportunity to revive our railway system. We would be fools to not do that.
You know - I always hear about the "floating germ factories". How is this any different than all the people in cities living on top of each other, cramming into subways, etc.
I've been on a number of cruises...sure anytime you are in closer quarters with people risk goes up, but lets not pretend it's some forgone conclusion that when there is no pandemic virus that is attacking everyone that cruises are somehow more dangerous than living on top of your neighbors in NYC, LA, Chicago, London, Rome...and on and on and on.
I mentioned cruise ships as a part of the subject of travel as it relates to the future. But, yes, to some degree people living on top of each other in big cities, or crammed in subways and planes are somewhat the same, but also different. If a virus rages through an apartment building, you can leave. Not so on a cruise ship. The ship is a more closed system and ocean bound.
I'm wasn't meaning to be critical of cruise ships (although if you ask my opinion, I easily could be). But I do think after COVID-19 the cruise ship industry will see a major shrinkage.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,296
And railways...better for the environment...way worse during a pandemic. So, why would a pandemic have that effect?
The idea is that we're going to back to normal. If so, we're looking at an opportunity to see how good things could be.
And that's really the question...ARE we going to go back to normal? I live in an urban condo within feet of a light rail transit line I've ridden almost every weekday from June 2014 through last month. One-care household and my wife drives for work. Now I have to decide whether I'm going to take that to the office once I get to start going in. Ugh. My long-run hope is that I'll be riding it every day after there's a vaccine. In the interim, I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing.
And man, I hope we do go back to normal. Because it's not feasible to suburbanize all of the people in big cities. And it's not sustainable to make sure each of them drives.
The question is, is suburbia sustainable? I don't think so, but maybe somehow we will find a way to make it possible. My doubts stem from seeing this documentary, one you might find interesting:
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
About ten years ago when I was going through cancer treatment, I said to myself all the time, "This has changed me. From now on I will be more this and more that and do less of this or that. I will never see the world the same again." It didn't take long after I went into remission that most of my bad habits returned -- even smoking! -- and I realized I am pretty much who I am, cancer or not. Someone said it earlier. There will have to be massive loss of life before any dramatic changes occur in the way society works. There may be incremental changes in how we operate. I've never been one to believe in the "we study history in order not to repeat it." We repeat history all the time (genocide, anyone?). This will not be the last time the world is unprepared for a crisis.
Reading this made me think of a somewhat similar experience ( not cancer ) , around 2004 I had to have major surgery on my left kidney and during the surgery my kidney burst , I was in ICU for two days and have little to no memory of it , I was then in the hospital for 10 days recovery ( was only supposed to be there 3 day total ) and another few weeks recovering at home.
When I first woke up and was speaking to my family after getting out of ICU , I thought my god why did I say I would catch up with this person another time or not go out with friends because I wanted to get a few extra hours of sleep , that I was working at a job that I hated ( management at Bank Of America ). I said I would never go back , I did leave that job and have worked at a non-profit for years but you just kind of get back into the habits you have.
Talking to my mom every night on Facetime I still get angry with myself that right before this happened she asked if I wanted to stop by for dinner and I was just tired from work and said " another time"
I agree with the main points that it's going to be easy for people, and larger society to fall back into old habits. Look at the cleaner air...I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." There will be some small changes...maybe some employers (for employees who have work-at-home as an option) will be forceful in discouraging people from coming to the office when sick...things like that. But things that don't relate directly to what's going on (like travel behaviors, cherishing time with family, less time in the rat-race, etc.) are likely to revert back.
All that said, specific to your situation, people have to look out for themselves...If I allowed her to, my mom would suck the life right out of me. That dinner you missed? Sometimes people have to do that. Eddie gets it (see "Alright")
"I really don't think people are going to maintain their reduced driving behaviors once things are "normal." "
I've thought about that myself. I think people will definitely up their average daily mileage once this is over but I think driving and travel in general will be reduced from what it was B.C..
I can't imagine big cruise ships will be the thing they once were. Someone smart and with big bucks should take some of those ships and permanently dry dock or land them and turn them into huge hotel/entertainment centers rather than floating germ factories.
I don't see people flying as much as they used to- at least in part because I think most people will be less well off (and the brunt of that will be felt by the poor and people with lower incomes).
If we here in the U.S. were smart (generally we are not) we would seize this opportunity to revive our railway system. We would be fools to not do that.
You know - I always hear about the "floating germ factories". How is this any different than all the people in cities living on top of each other, cramming into subways, etc.
I've been on a number of cruises...sure anytime you are in closer quarters with people risk goes up, but lets not pretend it's some forgone conclusion that when there is no pandemic virus that is attacking everyone that cruises are somehow more dangerous than living on top of your neighbors in NYC, LA, Chicago, London, Rome...and on and on and on.
I mentioned cruise ships as a part of the subject of travel as it relates to the future. But, yes, to some degree people living on top of each other in big cities, or crammed in subways and planes are somewhat the same, but also different. If a virus rages through an apartment building, you can leave. Not so on a cruise ship. The ship is a more closed system and ocean bound.
I'm wasn't meaning to be critical of cruise ships (although if you ask my opinion, I easily could be). But I do think after COVID-19 the cruise ship industry will see a major shrinkage.
Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,296
When he's not ranting about "the deep state" of ruing what he sees a the demise of the Democratic Party, writer and blogger James Howard Kunstler has a brilliant way of telling it like it is. His vision here of the near future sounds quite accurate to me. Those of you young enough to forge a new and prosperous life might find this entry actually contains a ray of hope for your future:
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, Joni trilled half a century ago. Another song, by CSN, went, it’s been a long time coming, it’s gonna be a long time gone.
Boomers. Back in the day – before they invented the hedge fund,
glyphosate, and political correctness – they had a way with the deep
vision thing. And now, here we are! Just like they saw it.
Open up is code, of course, for return to normal.
You’re kidding, right? Where I live, the future happened ten years ago.
Main Street is nothing but consignment shops, that is, old stuff people
got rid of, mostly for good reasons. The one thing you can’t get there
is food, unless there’s a bowl of mints next to the cash register. Oh,
and the Kmart in town shuttered exactly a year ago, so the supply of
new-stuff-waiting-to-be-old-stuff has been cut off, too. Welcome to
America, the next chapter.
The public is understandably frantic to bust out of their quarantine
bunkers. Seven weeks of jigsaw puzzles bears an interesting resemblance
to the old Chinese water torture. (Can you even say that? There, I said
it for you.) What will they find as they emerge blinking from the
doleful demi-life of the sequester? It’s liable to be a society in which
just about everything no longer works the way it was set up to work.
For instance: work itself. A lot of it has gone missing. Despite the feel-good propaganda broadcast on CBS’s 60 Minutes,
converting General Motors’ Kokomo plant into an emergency respirator
manufacturing operation is not going to save that company, or the
greater mission it serves: US suburban life per se. The car industry was
on-the-ropes before the Covid-19 virus landed. Car dealers were so
desperate to move the merch off the lot last year that they attempted to
induce folks who had already defaulted on their car loans to come sign
up for another car and a new loan. And that was after they’d tried
seven-year loans for pre-owned vehicles. General Motors sold 7.7 million
vehicles last year, while the whole US auto industry sold 17 million.
They are not going to survive as boutique car-makers.
Which leads to the Great Conundrum of the moment: Reality is telling
us that things organized on the gigantic scale are entering failure
mode; but so many Americans are employed by exactly those activities
organized on the gigantic scale. Or were, I should say. The humungous
joint effort by the federal government and its caporegime, the
federal reserve, to flood the system with dollars is precisely a
desperate effort to prop up the giant-scale activities that defined the
prior state-of-things. Those giant enterprises even did an end-run
around the truly small businesses that were supposed to get scores of
billions in grants, loans, and bailouts so congress is attempting a
do-over of that play.
The question, then, is how do you go through a swift and dramatic
re-scaling of a hypertrophic, excessively complex, ecologically fragile
economic system in a way that doesn’t produce a whole lot of damage? I
can’t answer that satisfactorily except to say this: at least recognize
what the macro trend is (downscaling and re-localization), and support
that as much as possible. Don’t knock yourself out trying to save giant,
foundering enterprises that need to go out of business. Don’t bankrupt
the society or destroy the meaning of its money to prevent the necessary
bankruptcy of things that must go bankrupt. Remove as many obstacles as
you possibly can to allow smaller-scaled enterprises to thrive and
especially to support the rebuilding of local networks that
smaller-scaled businesses play their roles in.
Apart from the insane spending orgy of the fed-gov and the fed, a lot
of this is already underway organically and emergently. Few have failed
to notice the death throes of national chain retail, for instance.
Macys, JC Penny, Neiman Marcus and many other outfits like them are
whirling around the drain. By the way, even the holy sainted Walmart
will not be immune to this trend. Its supply lines have been cut. And,
as I averred on Friday, Amazon’s dumb-ass business model will sink with
the oil and trucking industries. Realize, too, commerce will persist in
human life. It just won’t be the Blue-Light-Special, credit-fueled
phantasmagoria we got used to for a few decades. Commerce, i.e. the
trade in goods, will have to be reorganized differently. There are huge
opportunities for young people who recognize this.
All this remains to be worked out, and quite a work-out it is apt to
be before we get to it. Even with those glorious $1200 checks, millions
of people know just how broke and how probably screwed they are. They
are being let out of confinement just as fine spring weather sweeps
across the land. It will be momentarily exhilarating. Then, the rage and
resentment will percolate up and the bile will rise. Before you know
it, they’ll be singing that other old Boomer refrain of yesteryear (the
Rolling Stones): Summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street….
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
When he's not ranting about "the deep state" of ruing what he sees a the demise of the Democratic Party, writer and blogger James Howard Kunstler has a brilliant way of telling it like it is. His vision here of the near future sounds quite accurate to me. Those of you young enough to forge a new and prosperous life might find this entry actually contains a ray of hope for your future:
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, Joni trilled half a century ago. Another song, by CSN, went, it’s been a long time coming, it’s gonna be a long time gone.
Boomers. Back in the day – before they invented the hedge fund,
glyphosate, and political correctness – they had a way with the deep
vision thing. And now, here we are! Just like they saw it.
Open up is code, of course, for return to normal.
You’re kidding, right? Where I live, the future happened ten years ago.
Main Street is nothing but consignment shops, that is, old stuff people
got rid of, mostly for good reasons. The one thing you can’t get there
is food, unless there’s a bowl of mints next to the cash register. Oh,
and the Kmart in town shuttered exactly a year ago, so the supply of
new-stuff-waiting-to-be-old-stuff has been cut off, too. Welcome to
America, the next chapter.
The public is understandably frantic to bust out of their quarantine
bunkers. Seven weeks of jigsaw puzzles bears an interesting resemblance
to the old Chinese water torture. (Can you even say that? There, I said
it for you.) What will they find as they emerge blinking from the
doleful demi-life of the sequester? It’s liable to be a society in which
just about everything no longer works the way it was set up to work.
For instance: work itself. A lot of it has gone missing. Despite the feel-good propaganda broadcast on CBS’s 60 Minutes,
converting General Motors’ Kokomo plant into an emergency respirator
manufacturing operation is not going to save that company, or the
greater mission it serves: US suburban life per se. The car industry was
on-the-ropes before the Covid-19 virus landed. Car dealers were so
desperate to move the merch off the lot last year that they attempted to
induce folks who had already defaulted on their car loans to come sign
up for another car and a new loan. And that was after they’d tried
seven-year loans for pre-owned vehicles. General Motors sold 7.7 million
vehicles last year, while the whole US auto industry sold 17 million.
They are not going to survive as boutique car-makers.
Which leads to the Great Conundrum of the moment: Reality is telling
us that things organized on the gigantic scale are entering failure
mode; but so many Americans are employed by exactly those activities
organized on the gigantic scale. Or were, I should say. The humungous
joint effort by the federal government and its caporegime, the
federal reserve, to flood the system with dollars is precisely a
desperate effort to prop up the giant-scale activities that defined the
prior state-of-things. Those giant enterprises even did an end-run
around the truly small businesses that were supposed to get scores of
billions in grants, loans, and bailouts so congress is attempting a
do-over of that play.
The question, then, is how do you go through a swift and dramatic
re-scaling of a hypertrophic, excessively complex, ecologically fragile
economic system in a way that doesn’t produce a whole lot of damage? I
can’t answer that satisfactorily except to say this: at least recognize
what the macro trend is (downscaling and re-localization), and support
that as much as possible. Don’t knock yourself out trying to save giant,
foundering enterprises that need to go out of business. Don’t bankrupt
the society or destroy the meaning of its money to prevent the necessary
bankruptcy of things that must go bankrupt. Remove as many obstacles as
you possibly can to allow smaller-scaled enterprises to thrive and
especially to support the rebuilding of local networks that
smaller-scaled businesses play their roles in.
Apart from the insane spending orgy of the fed-gov and the fed, a lot
of this is already underway organically and emergently. Few have failed
to notice the death throes of national chain retail, for instance.
Macys, JC Penny, Neiman Marcus and many other outfits like them are
whirling around the drain. By the way, even the holy sainted Walmart
will not be immune to this trend. Its supply lines have been cut. And,
as I averred on Friday, Amazon’s dumb-ass business model will sink with
the oil and trucking industries. Realize, too, commerce will persist in
human life. It just won’t be the Blue-Light-Special, credit-fueled
phantasmagoria we got used to for a few decades. Commerce, i.e. the
trade in goods, will have to be reorganized differently. There are huge
opportunities for young people who recognize this.
All this remains to be worked out, and quite a work-out it is apt to
be before we get to it. Even with those glorious $1200 checks, millions
of people know just how broke and how probably screwed they are. They
are being let out of confinement just as fine spring weather sweeps
across the land. It will be momentarily exhilarating. Then, the rage and
resentment will percolate up and the bile will rise. Before you know
it, they’ll be singing that other old Boomer refrain of yesteryear (the
Rolling Stones): Summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street….
I like it. It’s been plain to see for a long time that an economy built on unrealistic growth with profit being the only motive isn’t sustainable for a healthy society. I definitely agree that rather than saving companies that are too big to fail the focus should be on what can sustainably replace these behemoths without destabilizing the lives of those that depend on them. Nothing is too big to fail.
I see the conspiracy theorists enjoying this one. All the tinfoil hat wearing people will be coming out in droves.
Totally. It is nutty. Lots of Bill Gates / Vaccine conspiracy posts, lab engineered virus conspiracy posts, the stay at home order being a precursor to total incarceration/martial law/completion of the totalitarian takeover, etc... It is also impossible to talk to any of those nutters. So I just respond with the ol' Alex Jones Tin Foil Hat picture and leave it at that.
"I'll use the magic word - let's just shut the fuck up, please." EV, 04/13/08
0
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,296
I see the conspiracy theorists enjoying this one. All the tinfoil hat wearing people will be coming out in droves.
Totally. It is nutty. Lots of Bill Gates / Vaccine conspiracy posts, lab engineered virus conspiracy posts, the stay at home order being a precursor to total incarceration/martial law/completion of the totalitarian takeover, etc... It is also impossible to talk to any of those nutters. So I just respond with the ol' Alex Jones Tin Foil Hat picture and leave it at that.
I agree the conspiracy theories are a bunch of bull. There is one, however, that I think deserves some serious consideration- the one that say Wembley Stadium is being used to bake a giant lasagna. I'm not sure what that has to do with the coronavirus but anything that big has to be related some how. Why? Because it IS that big. Want proof? Here it is:
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!" -Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
I see the conspiracy theorists enjoying this one. All the tinfoil hat wearing people will be coming out in droves.
Totally. It is nutty. Lots of Bill Gates / Vaccine conspiracy posts, lab engineered virus conspiracy posts, the stay at home order being a precursor to total incarceration/martial law/completion of the totalitarian takeover, etc... It is also impossible to talk to any of those nutters. So I just respond with the ol' Alex Jones Tin Foil Hat picture and leave it at that.
Most of the nutters spell it Marshall law though 🤦♂️
I alternate between the Alex Jones foil nod and the Weird Al foil "Seems a little crazy"
Comments
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
I've been on a number of cruises...sure anytime you are in closer quarters with people risk goes up, but lets not pretend it's some forgone conclusion that when there is no pandemic virus that is attacking everyone that cruises are somehow more dangerous than living on top of your neighbors in NYC, LA, Chicago, London, Rome...and on and on and on.
Shitty recreation lol
And man, I hope we do go back to normal. Because it's not feasible to suburbanize all of the people in big cities. And it's not sustainable to make sure each of them drives.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
The Great Conundrum
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, Joni trilled half a century ago. Another song, by CSN, went, it’s been a long time coming, it’s gonna be a long time gone. Boomers. Back in the day – before they invented the hedge fund, glyphosate, and political correctness – they had a way with the deep vision thing. And now, here we are! Just like they saw it.
Open up is code, of course, for return to normal. You’re kidding, right? Where I live, the future happened ten years ago. Main Street is nothing but consignment shops, that is, old stuff people got rid of, mostly for good reasons. The one thing you can’t get there is food, unless there’s a bowl of mints next to the cash register. Oh, and the Kmart in town shuttered exactly a year ago, so the supply of new-stuff-waiting-to-be-old-stuff has been cut off, too. Welcome to America, the next chapter.
The public is understandably frantic to bust out of their quarantine bunkers. Seven weeks of jigsaw puzzles bears an interesting resemblance to the old Chinese water torture. (Can you even say that? There, I said it for you.) What will they find as they emerge blinking from the doleful demi-life of the sequester? It’s liable to be a society in which just about everything no longer works the way it was set up to work.
For instance: work itself. A lot of it has gone missing. Despite the feel-good propaganda broadcast on CBS’s 60 Minutes, converting General Motors’ Kokomo plant into an emergency respirator manufacturing operation is not going to save that company, or the greater mission it serves: US suburban life per se. The car industry was on-the-ropes before the Covid-19 virus landed. Car dealers were so desperate to move the merch off the lot last year that they attempted to induce folks who had already defaulted on their car loans to come sign up for another car and a new loan. And that was after they’d tried seven-year loans for pre-owned vehicles. General Motors sold 7.7 million vehicles last year, while the whole US auto industry sold 17 million. They are not going to survive as boutique car-makers.
Which leads to the Great Conundrum of the moment: Reality is telling us that things organized on the gigantic scale are entering failure mode; but so many Americans are employed by exactly those activities organized on the gigantic scale. Or were, I should say. The humungous joint effort by the federal government and its caporegime, the federal reserve, to flood the system with dollars is precisely a desperate effort to prop up the giant-scale activities that defined the prior state-of-things. Those giant enterprises even did an end-run around the truly small businesses that were supposed to get scores of billions in grants, loans, and bailouts so congress is attempting a do-over of that play.
The question, then, is how do you go through a swift and dramatic re-scaling of a hypertrophic, excessively complex, ecologically fragile economic system in a way that doesn’t produce a whole lot of damage? I can’t answer that satisfactorily except to say this: at least recognize what the macro trend is (downscaling and re-localization), and support that as much as possible. Don’t knock yourself out trying to save giant, foundering enterprises that need to go out of business. Don’t bankrupt the society or destroy the meaning of its money to prevent the necessary bankruptcy of things that must go bankrupt. Remove as many obstacles as you possibly can to allow smaller-scaled enterprises to thrive and especially to support the rebuilding of local networks that smaller-scaled businesses play their roles in.
Apart from the insane spending orgy of the fed-gov and the fed, a lot of this is already underway organically and emergently. Few have failed to notice the death throes of national chain retail, for instance. Macys, JC Penny, Neiman Marcus and many other outfits like them are whirling around the drain. By the way, even the holy sainted Walmart will not be immune to this trend. Its supply lines have been cut. And, as I averred on Friday, Amazon’s dumb-ass business model will sink with the oil and trucking industries. Realize, too, commerce will persist in human life. It just won’t be the Blue-Light-Special, credit-fueled phantasmagoria we got used to for a few decades. Commerce, i.e. the trade in goods, will have to be reorganized differently. There are huge opportunities for young people who recognize this.
All this remains to be worked out, and quite a work-out it is apt to be before we get to it. Even with those glorious $1200 checks, millions of people know just how broke and how probably screwed they are. They are being let out of confinement just as fine spring weather sweeps across the land. It will be momentarily exhilarating. Then, the rage and resentment will percolate up and the bile will rise. Before you know it, they’ll be singing that other old Boomer refrain of yesteryear (the Rolling Stones): Summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street….
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
I alternate between the Alex Jones foil nod and the Weird Al foil "Seems a little crazy"